An ordinary but nicely executed horror movie, WITCHBOARD 2 suggests that the Ouija board is the Devil's Monopoly game. This modest chiller lacks the trashy sex and explicit violence die-hard buffs demand, but young couples searching for a make-out movie may give it two thumbs up.
Striking out timidly on her own as a career woman and fledgling artist, Paige Benedict (Ami Dolenz) picks the wrong apartment in which to launch her newly liberated lifestyle. What secret is her dippy landlady Elaine (Laraine Newman) harboring? Why is Elaine's brother Russell (John Catins)
intent on having mousy Paige pose for him, just like the previous tenant Susan (Julie Michaels)? And why is Susan's Ouija board suddenly so hyperactive in Paige's presence? On the home front, Paige's chauvinist ex-boyfriend, Mitch (Timothy Gibbs), a cop, begs her to give up her artistic
aspirations; at the office, a bitchy co-worker tries to sabotage her chances at a CPA promotion. But help, in the form of Susan's spirit, is on the way. Dispensing sage career advice, the Ouija board dominates Paige by giving her a crash course in self-esteem. By the time Ouija-addict Paige is
wearing revealing outfits and cursing like a sailor, Elaine's handyman husband has been pushed into the basement furnace. Meanwhile, Susan's spirit presses Paige to solve her murder as a ploy to gain complete control of her soul. After Elaine is smashed by a wrecking ball, Mitch becomes convinced
that Russell covered up Elaine's murder of Susan, who was conducting a free-rent affair with Elaine's spouse. At the climax, Susan so fully controls Paige that she tosses Mitch out the window and pins Russell to a pillar with an ax. Finally, Mitch convinces Paige to fight back to regain her soul;
the smashed Ouija board sends sluttish Susan's conniving spirit right back to hell. On her own terms, Paige takes Mitch back.
With some nifty special effects and eerie possession vision segments, WITCHBOARD 2 offers a decent package of thrills for fans of demonic possession. What lends additional substance to this flick is its attempt to parallel Paige's quest for self-expression with the gutsy attitude that the late
Susan injects into Paige's personality. In surviving the satanic take-over, Paige emerges as a stronger person, a theme that might have more resonance if Dolenz were actress enough to shade all the changes in her character's personality. Watchable despite some stale passages, WITCHBOARD 2 is
serviceable terror fare. With a more dynamic leading lady and a tighter script, this scare-a-thon might have really raised a few hackles. (Profanity, violence.) leave a comment
